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METAL EDGE, IN& 2004 PH 7.5T0 9.5 RAJ. 



I 

To The Members of The Hereditary Order of Descendants of Colonial Governors, 
Greeting: 

The following resolution signed by the Governor General and the Founder, and a Com- 
mittee of men chosen from the National Officers and honorary members, was sent April 
23, 1917 to the President of The United States: 

Honorable Woodrow Wilson, President of The United States: 

As Americans alive to the principles for spiritual and physical freedom, justice, and 
human welfare that caused the founding of our country, we hereby declare to you our one- 
ness of accord with you in your insistence upon them, and our loyal support to you in 
continuing them in our government and people, the universal recognition of them, the main- 
tenance of our National honor, the safeguarding of American rights against attack, and 
the establishing of equality of international right and law. 



As our Order commemorates the sacrifices and "service of the Colonial Governors 
who singly exercised supreme executive power in the American Colonies and who laid in 
them the foundations of stable government and of that respect for civil law and authority 
which made the maintenance of their future independence possible," — and the ultimate 
uniting of those separate democratic republics into our great Federal Republic, — and our 
badge is an Honorary Decoration whose use is to keep their services before the public; 
to induce others to emulate them, and to remind us, their descendants, who wear it through 
no merit of own. that more is expected of us as having the double responsibility to live 
up to, and spread the constilUitive principles ot those Colonies, besides each one's duty to 
ijcvciop ainise'ii lo ina iiigiicb't i^ussiuiiiViwi, — ^^jtii'tuci- iVitV.iiju 'uv uCir 'uc'ii'ig nn^rieredltary 
Honorary Order — (and not an elective society) — because the Decoration of an 
Honorary Order is customarly conferred for exceptional individual qualities, or for meri- 
torious deeds performed singly as well as collectively. Therefore as the Colonial Governors 
were sovereign in executive power in the American Colonies, and always in the forefront 
in action and relief work, many of our members desire in this world crisis to do something 
in the name of the Colonial Governors to show that their blood in our veins is as patriotic 
as they could wish, and as the blood with which it therein commingles, transmitted to us 
by other patriotic ancestors, which proves itself by continuous energy in ancestral societies 
formed for patriotic purposes and to raise monuments and memorials to them. 

While the war was an European one, I, as Governor General replied from its outset 
to requests from members for our endorsement and efforts in various relief societies they 
favored, that as the President of the United States had asked everyone to observe strict 
neutrality, our Order could not in loyalty take any official action concerning an European 
war, therefore I unofficially urged that— as the President of the United States is also Presi- 
dent of the American Red Cross, which is the United States' government's official vehicle 
for all aid, and as the Order's first consideration would be how quickest to deliver relief 
—our members could best do so, by giving individually to the Red Cross all the funds 
and work they would have given to our Order had it been acting as a body, officially,— 
in addition to their own unflagging work for the Red Cross and other relief societies— because 
of its distributing funds as donors designate, its accounts being audited by the United States 
War Department, and, being under the protection of the Treaty of Geneva, and having due 
recognition from foreign countries, it could reach sufferers otherwise inaccessible. And I au- 
thorized those of our Officers who were also Officers in it, to put its work ahead of our 
Orders, stating that they and all Officers engaged in any relief work would be excused from 
their official duties while the war waged. Also, with the concurrence of our Officers, I post- 



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rovernor General. 
Greenwich, 

Connecticut 
Please send your contribution to 
Chairman for State of 




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poned the work (already begun in several chapters) for achieving various foundation objects > ' ' '" • 

of our Order, so that all members might have the time they would have given to it, to 

devote to more relief work. #^'~^ 

Now, we are no longer outside the war and since the President of the United States 
as President of the American Red Cross has asked that all relief work be "co-ordinated 
and concentrated under one organization," to insure efficiency and avoid "duplication, delay 
and waste," our members although everyone of them as far as I have learned, are doing 
all their hands can do for the Red Cross, — can still further aid it, by helping our Order 
to get more materials for hands to work upon, — the National Officers of the Red Cross 
having replied to my asking for information, that they "will be extremely grateful if our 
Orders Chapters "will co-operate with the various Chapters of the Red Cross, planning 
garments as outlined in Pamphlet A. C. R. 164, April 27, 1917, Department of Military 
Relief" and "there is urgent need for supplies in France." 

Mr. J. P. Tumulty, Secretary to the President of the United States, 
has written me : "The President desires me to say to you that the Offi- 
cers of the American Red Cross deeply appreciate the generous co- 
operation of the Order of Descendants of Colonial Governors." 

Therefore with confidence in your enthusiastic concurrence, I ask each of you to 
send one dollar, or more as each wishes, to their State Chairman, as head "of a Finance 
Committee (of three or more members appointed by such Chairman, as required by our 
bylaws under such circumstances.) 

I the more confidently make this appeal to you for humanity, because our Order has 
never imposed annual dues, (which had it done so would at the lowest customary rates 
for d'JS.'i during our long exister.ce, have amc ted to a reserve fund of hirndreds of 
thousands of dollars had they been invested therefor) — nor has the Order ever asked its 
members to contribute even one penny for its maintenance. Hence all members are now 
urged to use every effort and opportunity to make the aggrega;te amount as large as possible 
for the relief of those who are bravely risking their lives and all that is dear, to substantiate 
American Ideals. 

We wish every State to be represented ; each State Chapter will, under its own name, 
have due credit given it in a separate book, in which each one's contribution will be recorded 
with date when received, by one of their Chapter's Finance Committee, or National Committee 
States where no chapter exists, will be represented as States by their members at large, i. e., 
National members, wlio have preferred not to identify themselves with chapters in their 
States ; such ones are requested to send their contributions to the National Chairman and 
Committee appointed to take charge of this work. 

The books will be forw"arded later to the National Order to be preserved in its National 
Historical Archives. 



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